Prison Law Solicitor - Director (Nationwide) - Salary £75K Per Annum

Duncan Lewis Solicitors; London; Hybrid; GBP 75,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading law firm in London seeks a Director for their Prison Law department. This role involves team management, overseeing casework, and ensuring compliance. The ideal candidate will have 5+ years of PQE in Prison Law, LAA Supervisory Status, and strong client care skills. The firm embraces hybrid working and offers excellent progression opportunities.

Benefits

Supportive team

Excellent progression opportunities

Support for legal awards/recognition

Qualifications

• Experience managing a team and conducting supervised casework.
• Ability to manage appropriate caseload types and complexities.
• Flexibility to work out of hours as required.

Responsibilities

• Ensure performance targets are met by collaborating with the Board.
• Supervise a team of solicitors, trainee solicitors and paralegals.
• Provide representation at prisons and manage diverse workload.

Skills

5 Years+ PQE

LAA Supervisory Status for Prison Law

Extensive expertise in managing Prison Law caseloads

Excellent client care skills

Excellent networking and communication skills

Excellent analytical and organisational skills

Excellent IT Skills

Education

Clean, valid Practicing Certificate

Job description

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Prison Law Solicitor - Director (Nationwide) - Salary £75K Per Annum, London

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Client:

Duncan Lewis Solicitors

Location:

London, United Kingdom

Job Category:

Other

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EU work permit required:

Yes

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Job Reference:

d9262ff4123f

Job Views:

23

Posted:

13.08.2025

Expiry Date:

27.09.2025

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Job Description:

Job Description:

Duncan Lewis Solicitors (Ltd):

Regulated by the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority, Duncan Lewis Solicitors was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in the City of London (Fenchurch Street EC3M), with offices nationwide. We are recognised by the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners UK independent legal directories as a top-tier law firm in all of our key practice areas – “a diligent and professional team that is prepared to go the extra mile for its clients”. A paperless law firm with over 500 personnel that embraces hybrid-working, we service both corporate entities and private individuals in over 25 areas of law across 60 languages. We give people a voice - that is our ethos

Choosing a career with Duncan Lewis is choosing a law firm that is the largest provider of publicly funded (legal aid) legal services in the country and has a growing private client practice. We have been Investors in People Gold Standard accredited for over 15 years and are continuously applauded nationally for the work that we do.

Having demonstrated unparalleled legal expertise and a commitment to justice, we were awarded Law Firm of the Year at both the 2024 Lexis Nexis Awards and 2023 Modern Law Awards. We are named as one of the Times 200 Best Law Firms. In 2021 we were celebrated by the Chambers Europe Award as an ‘outstanding firm’ for diversity and inclusion. In previous years we have been awarded a number of awards, including the Law Society Excellence Award for Large Law Firm of the Year in 2020, Access to Justice at the UK Legal Diversity Awards in 2019 and the Family Law Firm of the Year at the 2015 Family Law Awards, to name just a few. Duncan Lewis is Law Society Lexcel, Cyber Essentials Plus and ISO 27001 Information Management accredited.

We are committed to recruiting dedicated and talented professionals and welcome applications from exceptional candidates. At Duncan Lewis, we value training and diversity, and we take pride in our inclusive workforce. If you are passionate about our areas of law and eager to advance your career with us, please submit your CV and application online.

Department Background

Our specialists’ teams are made up of highly skilled lawyers, who are dedicated to providing comprehensive advice and assistance for the full range of matters dealt with in Prison Law.

The Prison Law department provides a unique service to clients ensuring assistance continues from imprisonment stage addressing issues such as appeals against conviction and/or sentence, Proceeds of Crime, advice regarding categorisation and difficulties experienced during custody.

The Prison Law team assists with transfers to other prisons, often closer to loved ones, re-categorisation to follow sentence plans, assistance with complaints, advice specific to foreign nationals and more. They also provide representation during adjudications for matters including disciplinary behaviour.

The Prison Law team have expertise in oral parole hearings, including for lifers, where advocacy assistance is often instrumental in ensuring early release and assist in relation to licence recall matters.

The Role:

The successful candidate must have experience of managing a team and will conduct supervised casework and also support other lawyers in the department. In addition, the successful candidate will also assist with an outsourcing project and review processes and procedures in place.

Main Responsibilities of the Role:

• Report directly to and collaborating with the Board to ensure performance targets are met
• Responsible for all aspects of Prison Law and some Crime work and on occasions, where appropriate providing technical expertise and guidance to other team members
• Supervising a team of solicitors, trainee solicitors and paralegals
• Training back office staff
• Varied workload and duties including: attending clients to take instructions; providing representation at prisons/ other detention institutions, file management; progressing cases; advocacy at parole hearings/adjudications; taking client instructions and attending meetings
• Training back office staff.
• Undertaking probation reviews for new staff and conducting monthly file reviews ensuring that follow up actions are dealt with promptly
• Ability to manage appropriate caseload types and complexities
• Dealing with correspondence
• Maintaining accurate time costing procedures
• Ensuring compliance with file management
• You will have a professional proactive approach, strong client care skills and be interested in Business Development and Marketing to supplement the work brought in by the company

Key Skills Required:

• 5 Years+ PQE
• Must meet LAA Supervisory Status for Prison Law
• Proven experience in team management, with a strong track record of achieving key performance indicators, including chargeable and billing.
• Extensive expertise in managing Prison Law caseloads.
• Must have a clean, valid Practicing Certificate at the time of applying
• Professional with a proactive approach; excellent client care skills and ability to deal with client matters in a sensitive manner and resolve complicated practicalities
• Be flexible and available to work out of hours as and when required
• Working to tight deadlines is a requirement of the role
• Excellent networking and communication skills with the ability to successfully market the Company and generate new business
• Excellent analytical and organisational skills
• Ability to use own initiative and sound judgment
• Excellent IT Skills - familiar with Microsoft Office applications and document management skills
• Willingness to travel to different locations and attend prisons as required

What we offer

• A fantastic supportive team
• Excellent progression opportunities
• Support for appropriate legal awards/recognition